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A. John Kennedy and Others v. State of Tamil Nadu and Others

Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 605Decided 29 May 2026
C.A. No.-006395-006397 - 2025
Justice Vikram Nath · Justice Sandeep Mehta

Background

This is a long-running matter combining two issues: preservation of Reserve Forests, Wildlife Sanctuaries and Tiger Reserves across Tamil Nadu's Agasthyamalai landscape, and a claim by the appellants, displaced tea estate workers, for rehabilitation after being evicted from the former Bombay Burma Trading Corporation Limited (BBTCL) tea estate once it was notified as a Reserved Forest/Tiger Reserve. Acting on an earlier interim order, the Court's own Centrally Empowered Committee (CEC) surveyed the Agasthyamalai landscape and reported large-scale, decades-old forest encroachment, thousands of individuals occupying thousands of hectares, with poor enforcement and even continued government welfare support flowing to the encroachers.

Decision Breakdown

Expressly noting the matter was "heard in part," the Court did not finally decide the appeals but issued an extensive set of fresh interim directions based on the CEC's findings. These include: preparation of a comprehensive eviction and post-eviction ecological restoration plan; disciplinary/criminal action against identified government-servant encroachers; a moratorium on extending welfare schemes, electricity, and infrastructure to encroached areas; a total ban on new non-forestry activity in the landscape until encroachments are cleared; dismantling of illegal resorts/commercial establishments and government structures within forest land within set timeframes; transfer of relevant land records between Kerala and Tamil Nadu; boundary survey/demarcation by the Forest Survey of India; and monthly/quarterly compliance reporting to the CEC and the Court. The Court protected officials acting bona fide during the removal exercise from prosecution and left open deployment of paramilitary assistance if the State fails to comply. The case was listed to continue as part-heard on 1st September 2026.

Lesson Learnt

Courts can and do issue continuing, highly detailed supervisory directions (through expert bodies like the CEC) to compel government compliance in large-scale environmental protection matters, rather than deciding everything in one final judgment: this order does not yet resolve the tea estate workers' rehabilitation claim, which remains pending for a later hearing.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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